JustASC

Gershom Gorenberg reviews a new movie about Jaffa, Ajami, co-directed by Scandar Copti, an Israeli Arab, and Yaron Shani, an Israeli Jew.

The result is extreme realism and equal sympathy for the Palestinian and Jewish characters. On screen, Ajami shows people unable to take control of their lives, doomed to violence. Yet it was created by people who chose to cooperate and bridge the ethnic divide. Without turning into allegory, the film presents the most basic alternatives facing Palestinians and Israelis.

The film, by the way, was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival. Writes Gorenberg:

Though it was not officially part of the latter festival’s City to City spotlight on Tel Aviv, its participation highlights the absurdity of the “Toronto Declaration” protesting the focus on Israeli cinema….

In fact, showcasing Tel Aviv hardly made the Toronto festival a “celebration of occupation,” as the declaration called it. The City to City list included another film about Jaffa’s fault lines. The festival as a whole featured the Israeli-made Lebanon, a new feature on Israel’s disastrous invasion of that country in 1982. And, of course, there was Ajami. This is not the usual meaning of “propaganda.” Rather, it’s a demonstration of how art can raise the most difficult questions in a society. In Ajami, directors Copti and Shani succeeded in showing people trapped in tribal allegiances. I came home moved by their cooperation, by their own ability to break out of the tragedy they had shown.